Greek theater. History of the theater

The surrounding world in the representation of the ancient Greeks is a stage of the theater, and people are actors who came from heaven in order to play a role and then go into oblivion. On the basis of this postulate, with the signs of cosmology, arose the Greek theater, which fully reflects the religion of the Hellenes. At first the performances were deeply religious in nature, but gradually the plays became closer to the real life of ordinary people.

Popularity

The emergence of the Greek theater is associated with the religious cult of Dionysus, the god of vegetation, viticulture, winemaking. Representations were based on subjects dedicated to this godless person, and were permeated with reverent worship of the deity. The Greek theater appeared in the VI century BC. And immediately became part of the life of the population of Athens. About its popularity can be judged by the grandiose structures on the slopes of the hills in the form of an amphitheater, seating up to 30 thousand spectators.

Dramaturgy of the past

The ancient Greek theater began to expand in terms of the variety of performances, there were numerous troupes of actors who played not only dramas and tragedies associated with Dionysus. Great tragedians of antiquity - Euripides, Aeschylus, Sophocles - wrote plays from the life of Greek society, which enjoyed constant success. Especially the audience liked the comedies of Aristophanes.

The whole history of the theater of ancient Greece consists of opposite in meaning plays. Tragedies usually reflected myths and legends, in which the gods acted as an invincible formidable force. The heroes of the play fought with the celestials, perished, but did not surrender. The comedies, on the contrary, were ridiculous and wore a keenly skewed character. The actors of the Greek theater showed no respect for the gods, and at times even ridiculed them. The heroes of comedies were ordinary people, artisans, traders, officials, slaves, housewives.

Theater performances were usually held on the feast of the Great Dionysios. The performance was arranged on a round platform in the lower part of the amphitheater, which was called "orchra". There was a choir of singers, who were to accompany the action. The singers moved around in circles, and among them was an actor playing his part. Initially, all the roles in the play were assigned to one performer. To somehow stand out from the surrounding choir, the actor put on shoes on a high platform - the so-called coturne, due to which he was 15 cm taller.

Structure of the performance

Soon the Athenian tragedian Aeschylus introduced the second actor and thereby made the action more dynamic. On the orchestra there were scenery, sound machines simulating thunder and lightning, howling of the wind and the sound of rain. Then the tragedian added another actor. However, roles became more and more, even three actors could not cope with them. Then, masks were introduced, each of which represented a certain image. For reincarnation, it was enough to change the mask and enter the stage in a new guise.

In the background, behind the orchestra, there was a special room - a skene, where the actors could change the mask, which was made from multi-colored clay and reflected the certain expression of the hero's face and his mood. The character of the mask was usually pronounced, when you look at it, the viewer immediately understood what the actor wants to say, and what feelings he is trying to express.

Masks as the basis of theatrical art

Of particular importance was the color of the mask: the dark complexion spoke of the calm and good health of the character, the illness or malaise embodied a yellow color, the red spoke of trickery, indignation and anger seemed a purple mask. Expressive masks were the basis of the whole play, on this all the theatrical action was built. The actor needed only to reinforce the impression with gestures and movements of the body. The masks of the Greek theater also played the role of a speaker, strengthening the strength of the sound of the voice of the actor.

Competitiveness

Greece since ancient times was considered a country of competition. The theater did not escape this tradition either. In the days of the Great Dionysians, all the performances were subordinated to the fire - competition. On holidays three tragedies and one comedy of a satirical orientation were arranged. At the end of each performance, the audience determined the best actor, the best production, and so on, according to all the signs that characterized the performance. On the last day of the Great Dionysus, the winners received prizes.

The fathers of the dramaturgy of that time - Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles - competed among themselves. Aeschylus, preaching morality, moral responsibility for the evil committed, thanks to his works ("Oresteia", "Prometheus", "Persians", etc.) won 13 times. Sophocles was recognized as the best tragedian 24 times, in this the images created by him in the tragedies "Electra", "Antigone", "Oedipus" helped. The youngest playwright - Euripides - tried to catch up with older mentors, his characters - Medea, Phaedra - deeply psychological.

An ancient comedy by Aristophanes is represented by the following works: "Wasps", "Horsemen", "Frogs", "Lysistrata", "Mir", "Clouds". The subjects of satirical plays echoed the political situation in Greece of that period. In comparison with dramaturgy based on legends, the comedies of Aristophanes reflected reality.

Greek Theater, its device

Slopes of the hills and the open sky. The Greek theater of the antique period is built on the following principle: a stepped amphitheater in the form of a truncated circle rises up from the round platform-stage. If you mentally continue the sloping design, you will get a closed figure consisting of regular concentric circles. Each circle is made up of roughly carved stone blocks. The surface of the stone is rough, and its contours are so correctly designed that joints are almost invisible. Behind the tiers of the Greek amphitheater in Athens stands the titanic work of hundreds of thousands of slaves who worked without rest day and night. 78 rows of spectator seats are divided into several segments of a wedge-shaped shape. The Greek theater necessarily had the first row with backboards for important persons, priests, officials and guests of honor. Separately stands a stone chair with openwork carvings, this is the place of the priest Dionysus.

A round platform, a theater stage, the so-called orchter, is separated from the amphitheater by a low fence. In its center is the altar-altar of Dionysus, on its steps during the performances were musicians. With the outside world, the orchestra is connected by passages-by the people. The site was regularly filled with small gravel or sand. Later it was paved with paving stones.

Behind the orchestra was a siege - a platform for collecting actors on the eve of the performance. And behind him was a skena or, in modern terms, a dressing room, where the performers of the roles selected their own masks and prepared for the entrance to the orchestra. On the sides of the sken there were two small outbuildings, where the theatrical props and masks were kept. These rooms were called paraschenia.

Communication before the performance

The centuries-old history of the theater of Greece is marked by one unshakable tradition. The audience gathered long before the start of the play, people walked a long string of people and sat down on empty seats. The early arrival was partly due to the desire to take the best place. In addition, it was taken before the presentation to communicate with neighbors, to learn news and share their thoughts. The ancient Greek theater was a kind of center of communication of the metropolitan residents. Usually people came as whole families.

The Modern Theater of Greece

At the very beginning of the 20th century, the theater "New Stage" was created in Athens, the name of which spoke for itself. In the repertoire of "Nea Skini" were works of both Greek playwrights and authors from other countries. Ibsen's play The Wild Duck, Turgenev's The Chieftain, The Secret of the Countess of Valeria Xenopoulos and many others were played and included in the repertoire.

The founder of the troupe K. Christomanos sought to create an ensemble of the last generation without regard for the traditional Greek theater of masks, with conditional characters and not completely defined roles. In general, he succeeded, but nevertheless some nuances from the past slipped in the productions. Some scenes did not do without the expressionless face of the actor resembling a mask. Sometimes the facial expression did not allow expressing feelings as the mask could do. Thus, the connection of the centuries was traced.

Stagnation

Between 1910 and 1920, Greek theatrical art fell into decay. The tense situation in the society in connection with the First World War and the general economic stagnation has told. People were not up to shows. Almost all theaters moved to a commercial basis, which meant a complete re-examination of the repertoire, the replacement of classical works with a low-profile boulevard. The changes were inevitable, since the auditoriums began to be visited by the raucous people who preferred to see half-naked actresses on the stage, and everything else did not interest them. All attempts to restore on stage classical performances based on plays by Sophocles and Aeschylus ended in failure. Another time has come, and the modern theater has taken its position.